Free Education
President Prabowo Subianto plans to make education free at more than 160,000 state schools of all levels and waive tuition fees at all state universities, raising questions over how the government will finance and implement the sweeping policy. Prabowo has recently reiterated his intention to make education free, but the commitment took a further step after he met with education and religious affairs ministers and the coordinating human development minister earlier this week. “It was the president’s directive to provide free education services for students at state schools, as part of his commitment that all Indonesian children have the right to quality education,” Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Abdul Mu’ti said after the Tuesday’s meeting. The plan would cover state kindergarten, elementary, junior high and high schools, as well as state Islamic schools and universities. Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara said there would be no additional allocation for free state schools, with the government instead reviewing how the existing education budget is distributed among the central and regional governments, ministries and agencies. Indonesia has 162,934 state schools with about 31.8 million students, according to the latest data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS). State schools generally do not charge tuition fees, but students may still pay for uniforms, books, extracurricular activities and other expenses. (Jakarta Post)
Aging school building in West Java